Process of making artificial fur



H. T. NOWELL.

PROCESS 0F MAKING ARTIFICIAL FUR.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. I6'. 1919.

1,371,804.' 'Patented Mar. 15, 1921.

INVENTOR. 7

' ATTORNEY.

unir rr PMCESS @F EN@ ARTIFICL EUR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 15, 1921.

Application filed September 16, 1919. Serial No. 824,118.

To all whomz't may concern.'

Be it known that I, HERBERT T. Nownrm, a citizen of the United States, residing at New Rochelle in the county of Westchester and State of ew York, have invented new and useful lm rovements in Processes of Making Artificial Fur, of which the following'is a specification.

he present invention relates to the production, in a cheap and preferably continuous manner, of a material suitable for use as a substitute for fur, for many of the purposes for which fur is commonly used, and embraces the product, as well as the process and apparatus used in its production.

The product of the present invention comprises essentially three portions, viz: (first) a fabric base, which may be heavy sheeting, duck or the like, or any suitable sheet-form material, which is preferably of a color corresponding to the predominant color of the fur being imitated; (second) hairs similar in appearance to those of the fur being imifated; and (third) a binder preferably of a iiexible character, also preferably one which can be vulcanized after assembling the component parts of the artificial fur, so as to produce a strong and permanent union between the fabric base and the hairs.

The hairs may be natural hairs, such as are produced as a oy-product in the making of leather from natural skins. or any other material of similar appearance. T he hairs may be a manufactured product, made by squirting viscose or other like solution of cellulose or cellulose derivative.

lt is, of course, to be understood that since the object is to produce a fur-like material, one end of each hair is to be inserted into the lastic or mucilaginous coating on the fabric. It will likewise be obvious that it is only necessary to treat one side of the fabric, although the other side e., the back) may receive any desired treatment, for special purposes.

Whether natural hairs or hairs artificially produced are to be used, they may be dyed (one or more colors as desired) in simulation of the hairs of a particular variety of natural skins. i

It may, in some cases, also be advisable to add suitable dye or pigment to the adhesive by which the hairs and the fabric are to be joined.

The recess and apparatus may be conveniently described in connection with the accompanying Vheet of drawing, in which Figure 1 is a diagrammatic view of an apparatus for applying the hairs and mastic to a fabr1 c base, to produce artificial fur.

Fig. 2 1s a perspective view of a portion of the apparatus illustrated in Fig. 1, this gure representing a pair of tongs which may be used for setting the hairs in the coatinpf adhesive on the surface of the fabric.

1g. 3 is an exaggerated view on an enlarged scale of a portion of the nished articial fur, the hairs being shown as standing up perpendicular to the surface.

Fig. e is a view similar to Fig. 3 illustratinthe hairs applied to bunches of tufts.

eferring tothe drawings in detail, the numeral 10 designates a strip of fabric such as duck, which is unwound from a roll l1 and passed over a plurality of idler rollers 12 and thence upon the roll 13. which constitutes a roll of the iinished article. Mounted above that portion of the fabric between the idler rollers 12. and preferably a short distance from the first of such rollers, is a suitable container i4 in which a suitable water proof adhesive material (such as a rubber-base adhesive cement) is contained as a semi-liquid or mucilaginous composition. A spout 15 which forms an outlet for the container 14, is arranged in such a position as to distribute the semi-liquid material entirely across the upper facepof the fabric as the said fabric passes under said spout, and shortly after leaving the first roller 12 and arranged beneath a portion of said fabric is a suitable heating means 16 by which the material is retained in its semi-liquid condition. This may be a. steam heated or electrically heated box or plate, if desired.

The adhesive may also be applied by any other suitable manner, 2. e., by rollers, re volving or other brushes, spraying, atomizing or the like. depending upon the character of the specific composition to be employed.

As illustrated, the heater 16 may extend to a point `rabout midway of that portion of the fabric between the rollers 12 and arranged intermediate the ends of the heater is a pair of tongs 17 ywhich extend the entire width of the fabric. These tongs are adapted to `hold the hairs in rows to be applied to the coated surface of said fabric uniformly andv arranged between the tongs and the end of the heater 16 is a roller 18 by which the hairs are firmly pressed into place. A. rotary brush 19 is positioned ad- 2 La7/ism jacent said roller and is adapted to prevent the hairs from becoming tangled, thereby insuring a fur-like finish to the product.

Extending from the end of the heater is a vulcanizer 20 which acts to vulcanze the semi liquid coating on the fabric and around the hairs to firmly attach the same to the fabric base, and from the vulcanizer the finished-product is Wound upon the roll 13. The fur maybe cooled by air blasts from the perforated pipes 24-25 if desired.

As illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4, the ends of the hairs are firmly set or embedded in the coating 21 of the fabric base 10 which b eing subsequently vulcanized around said hairs, firmly secures the same to the fabric and the rolling and combing process, if used, causes the hairs to all lie inclined in one direction, which insures a finish closely resembling natural fur. The production of anartificial fur of this nature considerably cheapens the manufacture of garments iesembling real fur, owing to the fact that the product can be cheaply made, and of any desired size. This artificial fur can be arranged in convenient rolls from which pieces of various sizes may be readily out.

The hairs may be stuck into the plastic rubbery coating on the fabric, asregular rows, by a tongs arrangement similar to that shown in Fig. 2, these rows being close together as desired, so that the base will not show through the hairs, to an objectionable extent. Y

The hairs may be all pressed in one direction by the roll 18 and the brush 19,'if desired, in imitation of fur in which the hairs or bristles point in vone direction'.l These two devices may be omitted, which would leave the hairs standing straight up, resembling other varieties of' fur, by frequently reversing the direction of the brush 19, or parts of thelength thereof, other effects may be produced.

The hairs, or some of them, maybe placed in tufts, as shown in Fig. 4. Combinations of short hair all over and long hair tufts, or vice versa, or hairs of one color for the ground and tufts of another color, etc., may be used to produce special effects.

The semi-liquid or muclaginous coating material is preferably composed of rubber dissolved in alcohol, or a solvent including this, until the same attains a substantially creamy consistency which the soft ends of the hairs can readily stick into. lVhile I do not wish to be limited to the particular coating material above mentioned, l have found through extensive experiments that such material is Well suited to my purpose.

While in the foregoing has been shown and described a convenient embodiment of this invention, it is to be understood that applicant is in no way limited to the exact arrangement ofthe various elements and that certain changes in the combinationthereof, and a large number of hairs stuck endwise downwardly thereinto, said coating being vulcanized to hold the ends of hairs.

2. An artificial fur-like material comprising a Vfabric base, a coating of somewhat elastic material on the face side thereof, and a large number of hairs stuck endwise thereinto, said coating being composed at least in substantial part of rubber and being vulcanized to the hairs and to the base.

3. The herein described process of producing artificial fur, which comprises coating the upper surface of a fabric base with a vulcanizable binder material, uniformly inserting downwardly into the said binder 'material the ends only of rows of hairs, combing or brushing the hairs to make the same lie down more or less but not to mat and then vulcanizing the binder material to firmly hold the hairs in place.

A process of producing artificial fur, which comprises applying to the upper surface of a fabric base an adhesive vulcaniz- Vable binder which will be pliable after vulcanizing, inserting the ends of hairs into the said binder, and vulcanizing the same.

5. A process of producing artificial fur, which comprises coating one side of a fabric base with an adhesive binder containing rubber as its predominating non-volatile constituent, inserting the ends of hairs into said binder, and thereafter drying and vulcanizing the binder.

6.. process of making; artificial fur, which comprises applying an adhesive plastic vulcanizable binding material to the upper surface of a moving strip of fabric, maintaining said coating on the fabric in a plastic condition, mechanically inserting into said plastic coating the ends of a plurality of hairs in spaced relation, mechanically pressing said hairs endwise into the plastic coating, whereby the hairs are caused to lie substantially in one direction, combing the hairs so applied to prevent and over come tangling tendency, vulcanizing the said coating, whereby it becomes rigidly attached Vto the base and to the ends of the hairs, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I hereby aiix my signature.

HERBERT T. NOWELL. 

